This coming Friday, April 20, students at American University will be rallying in solidarity with Aramark janitorial staff on campus, who have been consistently disrespected by both Aramark management and the AU administration. Faced with increasing workloads without any comparable increases in pay or benefits, many Aramark workers have felt the impacts of the work increases dramatically.

“Our health has been adversely affected by the present conditions.” One worker stated in a recorded testimony. Workers for the most part have wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from management. The same worker continued: “We go to sleep exhausted. We wake up in the morning, exhausted; and — exhausted — we go to work.”

In order to remedy the situation, the American University Student Worker Alliance has proposed including a limit on workloads within the university’s contract with Aramark, to be re-negotiated this summer, and to include a limit on workloads within the university’s new Social Responsibility Code. The Student Worker Alliance has delivered two letters to the university administration asking them to consider these steps. They have not received any answer directly from the university, but have received a letter back from Don MacIntire, Director of Housekeeping and Aramark’s head manager on AU’s campus, dismissing all of our concerns.

We will not let the administration and Aramark, who are working together to hide the problems faced by Aramark workers on our campus. Join SWA for a rally and march on Friday, April 20th at 2:15 PM on the main quad of American University. More information is available here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/268766809884609/